Bringing Up Bonjo
by linda-seton
Summary: Lex, Chloe and a two hundred pound leopard named Bonjo - COMPLETE
1. I

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
By Linda Seton  
  
-----  
  
"A what?" Pete stops in mid-keystroke at his desk at The Torch.  
  
"A nature preserve. Lionel Luthor has built a nature preserve on the grounds of the family manse." Chloe shuffles through photocopies of the latest building permits culled from the courthouse.  
  
"Preserving anything just isn't in character for that man."  
  
"He's filed for special permits to have big game. Lions and tigers and leopards and other things that could potentially Roy you." Chloe tosses aside the pages.  
  
"In other words we shouldn't be surprised to hear a lot of gunfire coming from the Luthor estate. I mean, more than usual. Y'know safari-style."  
  
"So, you automatically assume that Lionel and his rich friends are going to go big game hunting? Suspicious, much?" Chloe smiles.  
  
"I learned from the best." Pete shoves his chair back and grabs his backpack. "And before you ask I'm allergic to wild animals. And I'm going to Brandi's house to study after school."   
  
Pete backs out of the office, turns and tears off down the hallway before Chloe can start wheedling at him.  
  
Chloe shakes her head. "Me, predictable." Checking the batteries of her camera, Chloe tosses it in her bag and heads for the door. "Predictable."  
  
Chloe hustles down the deserted school hallway and steps out into the parking lot just as Pete heads off in his dad's truck. He sounds the horn and waves at her as she slides behind the wheel of her red convertible Bug.  
  
Chloe turns the engine over and motors out onto the street. She wonders if Pete might be right about Lionel's motives for keeping the animals. Probably not. The only thing Lionel seems to be interested in hunting to the death is Clark. Then why a host of wild animals?   
  
Chloe slows the car as she reaches the first stone and granite wall that surrounds the northern edge of the Luthor estate. On the forms the animals were only listed as being on this one section of the grounds so they probably aren't being used as uber-expensive watchdogs for the castle. But maybe it isn't the castle Lionel is trying to protect. As she parks the car she knows there is only one way to find out.  
  
Grabbing her camera and hanging it around her neck, Chloe climbs out of the VW and starts to slam the door. She decides closing it softly is a better option.   
  
Surveying the ten-foot wall, Chloe picks a spot and begins to climb. If she can just get to the top and have a look see without toppling into the estate it will prove to be a good day. Reaching the top after a fair amount of swearing, she swings a leg over and her foot comes down on an uneven section of wall.   
  
The wall grunts.  
  
Chloe looks over her shoulder at a full grown leopard furiously licking the paw she had just mashed.  
  
"Nice, kitty?" Chloe whispers hopefully as she starts to slip back down the wall. She fights the urge to just let go and drop the ten feet.   
  
Drop, fall, be eaten.   
  
Chloe inches down toward terra firma.   
  
The leopard crawls over and tilts its head so it is staring directly down at Chloe. It licks its chops.  
  
Chloe whimpers and shuts her eyes but for only a heartbeat. She cannot remember if she should hold eye contact with the big cat or not. Regardless, Chloe knows she would rather see what's coming.  
  
She reaches the ground and, keeping her eyes on the cat, backs toward her car. The leopard pads after her along the top of the wall. Chloe reaches the car and fumbles open the door. She throws herself inside and slams the door.  
  
Hands shaking, Chloe tugs the key from her pocket. She gets it between her fingers and after a few desperate jabs forces it into the ignition.   
  
As she turns the key, the world collapses in around her.  
  
The leopard – all two hundred pounds of it – drops through the roof of the car and lands with an oomph in the passenger seat.  
  
Chloe moves aside the flap of roof that covers her face just as the cat eats the flower in the vase on the dashboard. It begins to gnaw on the vase and after a few nips snaps it free.  
  
"Nice, Kitty. Please, please choke to death, Kitty. Please?" She offers in the sweetest of voices.  
  
The cat swings its head around and examines Chloe. Drool drains down onto the seat as it crunches the plastic. It shakes its head sending pieces of vase and saliva flying.  
  
Unsure of what to do, Chloe puts the car in gear. She hopes the cat will want to vacate the newly moving premises. Untroubled by Chloe's driving, the cat flops down onto the car seat and begins to groom itself.  
  
tbc 


	2. II

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
By Linda Seton  
  
-----  
  
Hair flipping back and forth, Chloe looks from leopard to road as she navigates toward the Kent farm. Clark knows about animals; Jonathan Kent knows about animals and about guns. Maybe they can somehow extricate her from the car in one big, cohesive piece.  
  
The leopard regards Chloe and seems fascinated by her hair. It lunges up and begins to chew and nuzzle the flipped tips.  
  
"oh my god" Chloe whimpers as she struggles not to push the cat away. "Nice, Kitty. Do you like my hair? Yes? Please don't eat my hair, Kitty."   
  
The cat nuzzles her face and gives her a rough lick before collapsing on top of her. The weight shoves Chloe against the glass of the window and she fights to keep her hands on the wheel and foot on the gas pedal.   
  
In search of a good rub, the cat burrows its head into her rib cage. Twisting its head, the cat hits a ticklish spot on Chloe's side. Chloe tries to fight back the laughter but cannot help herself. Tears stream down her face.   
  
"Please stop, Kitty, please."  
  
In response the leopard snorts and offers a little half-roar.  
  
"Okay, just don't eat. Please don't eat me. Or maim me. No maiming."  
  
The leopard shifts up and paws at Chloe. Its more or less friendly pawing cuts through her coat and completely rips her shirt off in a surgically precise square.   
  
"Nice, kitty."  
  
The cat turns its attention to Chloe's bag and finds a bag of Twinkies near the top. A mush of plastic, cake and white goo oozes out of the cat's mouth.  
  
"oh, my god, you're hungry."  
  
Chloe glances at the road and sees a sedan coming in her direction. It's one of the hundred of black Luthorcorp business cars that drive back and forth to Metropolis every day -- the kind of car her dad sometimes drives. Chloe forces her hand away from the headlight switch. Signaling for help could get someone like her dad killed. No, she has to get to a place where people might be able to deal with a leopard.  
  
The cat straightens and arches its back. It buries its head in Chloe's bag looking for more grub.  
  
Chloe knows there isn't anything left but some mints.  
  
The leopard chomps down on the mints.  
  
The black sedan flashes by as Chloe realizes she might have a way out of this situation that doesn't involve anyone but her. Now that Lionel Luthor was once again in control of the plant her dad was back to taking sleeping pills at least one night a week. And she had picked up his prescription that morning.  
  
Eyeing the cat, she carefully reaches under her car seat and comes up with the small drugstore bag. Inside there is Chloe's candy of choice, a Peppermint Pattie, and the bottle of pills.  
  
Slowing the car, she inverts the bottle of medication in one hand and allows the pills to fall into her palm. She drops the bottle and the cat leans over her for a better look at what just rattled. Struggling to hold the pills, Chloe tears open the edge of the candy wrapper.  
  
The leopard nuzzles in and Chloe pulls back. The cat growls and Chloe hurriedly jams as many pills as she can into the candy.  
  
The leopard lifts a paw and Chloe offers the candy. It takes wrapper, pills and mint from Chloe and delivers a hard swat as a thank you.  
  
The blow jars Chloe and knocks her back against the glass of the door. The wheel spins free of her grip and the car spirals out of control as both Chloe and the leopard yowl.  
  
tbc 


	3. III

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
By Linda Seton  
  
----  
  
Chloe's car corkscrews off the road and comes to a jerking stop in a ditch.  
  
Badly rattled and scraped, Chloe feels for the door handle behind her and keeps her gaze on the still stunned leopard lying in a heap on the floorboard. Gritting her teeth, Chloe tries to wrap her hand around the lever to release the door. She cannot hold.   
  
Coming out of it, the cat growls and shakes its head.  
  
"C'mon!" Chloe leans forward and turns enough to see the door handle. She wedges her elbow against the metal.  
  
The leopard hisses as it tries to get on its paws.  
  
Appling all the pressure she can to the door, Chloe slips and slides down in the seat. "No, no, c'mon!"  
  
The door opens behind her and Chloe half falls out of the car. For a flash all she sees is an arc of blue sky above her and then Lex Luthor's face. He lifts her free of the car and a desperate Chloe kicks back slamming the car door. The leopard's face looms in the glass.  
  
"Lex, you're dead!" The badly addled Chloe says it trying to make sense of the chaos.  
  
He swings her up and places her on her feet. "And you have a leopard in your car." He steps free of Chloe and stares at the leopard which is busy chewing the back of the car seat.  
  
Chloe glances back at the cat. "We have to get out of here. That thing is dangerous."  
  
"But don't you see? You don't exist. None of this exists."  
  
Chloe blinks at him.  
  
"This is all just a hallucination. You and a leopard? Even in Smallville that makes no sense."  
  
"And you're dead." Chloe's hand goes to the side of her head and she pulls back with a smattering of blood. "And maybe I'm dead?"  
  
"No, you are just a hallucination. And as far as hallucinations go you smell far better than Lewis."  
  
The leopard offers a little hiccup of a roar and scratches deep groves in the window glass.  
  
Chloe turns in a half-circle. She doesn't know what to do. Maybe she is dead. Or out cold in the car and all of this is a dream. She does know that she wants to leave the leopard far behind.  
  
"Do you have a car, Lex? Close?"  
  
"No, I've been out walking. Lately, I've been having problems with closed-in spaces."  
  
"Oh? Do you think we could walk?" Chloe motions back at the cat and the effort throws her off balance.  
  
Lex catches her around the waist. "I won't let it eat you. Well, I don't think I'll let it eat you." Lex smiles as he guides her away from the car.  
  
"Thanks, I think."  
  
"I mean maybe I'm supposed to let the leopard eat you?"  
  
"Why?" Chloe makes eye contact with Lex for the first time.  
  
"You obviously represent my problems with women. Mother, lover, wives. You're the anima within me and all the women I encounter. You're an archetype."  
  
"Thanks." Chloe tries to find the reserves to mount an argument but she makes the mistake of glancing back toward the car.   
  
The leopard emerges from the torn roof flap and slides down the car hood to the ground.  
  
Chloe makes a sound and Lex glares back toward the leopard as it bounds in their direction.  
  
"I take it you're not going to talk to me until I deal with that cat?"  
  
Lex steps free from Chloe and starts to unbuckle his belt.  
  
"What are you doing?" She asks with a slight squeak in her voice.  
  
"Don't worry. It'll only take a minute." He marches back toward the leopard with his belt coiled at his side.  
  
The large cat sees Lex coming and goes down low. Muscles grow taut as it prepares to spring.  
  
Lex ambles over to the cat; the leopard jerks forward but its back legs go out from under it. The cat glances back a little startled. The forcefed sleeping pills have finally taken effect.  
  
"Hello, there." Lex drops the belt loop around the leopard's head and leads the animal back toward Chloe.  
  
tbc 


	4. IV

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
By Linda Seton  
  
Chloe rubs her eyes as Lex strolls back to her with the leashed leopard.  
  
He grins. "See how easy that was?"  
  
Chloe stares down at the leopard. Eyes glazed from the sleeping pills, the leopard purrs happily in a drug-induced euphoria. A relieved Chloe sags down a little. "I think the sleeping pills I fed it must have taken effect."   
  
"You doped my leopard?"  
  
"Your leopard? I was pretty sure it was going to eat me. I shoved some sleeping pills into a chocolate bar. And when did it become your leopard?" Chloe's voice cracks.  
  
"When I put a leash on it." Lex shakes his head at her failure to keep up with his logic. "I think I'm starting to understand, now."  
  
Tugging the leopard in the direction of the castle, Lex resumes walking. Chloe follows him not sure of what is real and what might be the effects of a blow to the head.  
  
"What do you understand, Lex?"   
  
"The leopard is the masculine. The animus. The aggressive in me."  
  
"I think it's a girl leopard." Chloe offers as she falls a few steps behind.  
  
"Whatever. The women I encounter are always duplicitous. They try to use me. To trick me into believing they love me, metaphorically, their love is the chocolate covering the sleeping pills. Victoria said she loved me and then tried to steal my business. Desiree said she loved me and then tried to kill me. Same with Helen."  
  
"Helen tried to kill you?"  
  
"Yes, of course." Lex turns on her. "Why are you walking behind me?"  
  
"I'm really tired, Lex, and I'm a little leery of the cat."  
  
"Right. I think I'd rather have you beside me where I can see you more easily." Lex slows allowing her to catch up.  
  
"You think I want to kill you?"  
  
Lex does not answer. As the two walk in silence, Lex looks her up and down; Chloe pulls her torn jacket tight around her.  
  
He finally speaks, "It's strange that my brain chose you to represent all things feminine. If my conscious mind were doing the choosing I would have picked someone taller and darker."  
  
"Sorry." Chloe veers off a little to avoid the staggering leopard.  
  
"It's not like you've participated in that many of my sexual fantasies..."  
  
The leopard collapses to the ground and begins to roll around on the grass. Lex seems mesmerized by the sinuous motion.  
  
Chloe hesitates and then carefully touches his arm. "Lex, are you real?"  
  
"I'm real, but you, I'm afraid, are not."  
  
"Lex, I am real. It's me, Chloe. I'm standing right here in front of you." She squeezes his arm. "See?"  
  
"No, you're not. If you were real would I do this?"  
  
He pinches her hard on the ass.   
  
She staggers back a little dumbfounded. "First you're fantasizing and now you're pinching. Just stay there with your damned cat!"  
  
"Are you telling me I should turn my anger and aggression inward? Channel it? Use that energy for something other than feeling sorry for myself?"  
  
"No, I'm telling you to stay over there with the man-eater."  
  
"That's true isn't it?" Lex pulls the cat to its feet. "It consumes men. That by bottling up all my anger I stand a very good chance of destroying myself. It's all about balance isn't it?" Lex kneels and loosens the leash from the leopard's neck.  
  
"Lex, what are you doing?" Chloe stumbles back.  
  
"Trying to find a balance. Anima and animus. Which is stronger?" Lex smiles at Chloe. He raises his belt and whacks the leopard on the haunches.  
  
Still fairly drugged, the cat gives him a quizzical look and then focuses its attention on Chloe. The leopard slides past Lex and bounds after the girl.  
  
Chloe runs for all she's worth.  
  
tbc 


	5. V

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
By Linda Seton  
  
Chloe runs without any clear sense of where she can go for help. She risks a look back just as the leopard comes up on her right. Chloe spins around and the cat shoots past her.  
  
The leopard tumbles to the ground and twists around to pursue the girl. Panting for breath, Chloe scans the open field and roadside for any place to hide.   
  
All she sees is a smirking Lex.  
  
Chloe runs straight toward him. His eyes widen in surprise as she throws herself on him and brings him to earth. The leopard bounds up and watches the two people thrashing around on the ground; the bored cat drops to the grass and begins to chew at its feet.  
  
Lex comes up on top straddling Chloe. Pinning both of her hands to the ground with one of his, he reaches for a rock. White-knuckled, he hefts it above her face.  
  
"You're not real!"   
  
Chloe sees the rock, focuses her gaze on Lex's face and says the only thing she knows that might save her life. "Lex, I love you."  
  
He blinks at her and lowers the rock. "What?"  
  
"I love you Lex. Just you. Not the money or your crazy family tree. If you pumped gas for a living and could still quote from The Decameron I'd love you. It's all about you -- the inner you that you work so hard to keep protected. It's like you have a wall..."  
  
"Around my heart. Yes, I know." Lex sits back on the ground and tosses the rock aside narrowly missing the leopard.  
  
Chloe eases up and gently touches his shoulder. Lex squeezes her hand and after a moment asks. "I wonder what Jung would make of this?"   
  
"Jung was a misogynistic nightmare." She stops short of pulling her hand away. As the leopard hiccups, Chloe continues, "You want to know what I think your problem is?"  
  
"That's why you're here. Please feel free."  
  
"You're always trying to replace something that you feel you've lost out on with the women in your life. You're starting to look ridiculous that every time some woman comes along with the whole 'I love you for you' line you marry her. And, yes, Clark can't keep his mouth shut about your personal life."  
  
Lex considers what she said for a moment. "What do you think I'm trying to replace? Mother's love? Father's love? What?"  
  
"I don't think it matters what you're trying to replace. I just think you need to stop."  
  
Lex shakes his head. "From my past experience, you're very direct for a hallucination. No, soft pedaling and symbolism from you. Please, continue. I need to stop replacing things I feel I've lost?"  
  
"Can't you just want someone that brings something new into your life? Something you never knew you wanted? Something other than complete adoration of you? I understand that you want to be loved -- loved just for being you -- but until you can love someone just for being her I'm not sure there's any 'you' to love." Chloe takes a breath.  
  
Lex sits quietly considering and then looks her in the eye. "You don't love me. It was all a trick." He pulls his hand free. "I can't believe I fell for it, again."  
  
"Why should I love you Lex? You tried to kill me with a leopard and a rock."  
  
"Fair enough." Lex rises and helps Chloe to her feet. "What you're telling me is that I have to earn your love."  
  
"No, you have to earn people's trust. Sometimes love happens after that."  
  
Lex seems to be considering her words as he retrieves his leopard. The cat, a little less drugged, half-snarls at him as the leash falls around its neck. Lex turns to Chloe, "The symbolism of the leopard is still lost on me. I mean, why a leopard?"  
  
"I don't know, Lex. This is your subconscious, remember?" Chloe rubs her eyes as she tries to remember if this really is his subconscious.  
  
"Right." Lex leads the cat and Chloe trails after them. He glances back, "I don't think you're trying to kill me anymore."  
  
"That's good, Lex."  
  
tbc 


	6. VI

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
by Linda Seaton  
  
The two walk in silence for a few moments.  
  
"Can I tell you a secret, Chloe?" Lex asks.  
  
"Sure, Lex."  
  
"I caused Helen to jump out of plane and possibly kill herself."  
  
"Helen is fine. She made it back from the honeymoon but you didn't."  
  
"No, the second honeymoon. She tried to kill me on the first honeymoon and I might have killed her on the second honeymoon."  
  
Chloe struggles to focus. Her head is pounding and this could just be more than she can take. "Helen told the press this story about you saving her life when the plane went down. Giving her the last parachute and all. Which is just ridiculous because you both weigh like nothing – why couldn't you share?"  
  
"When I got back from the island she told me that my father tried to kill us both and drugged the wine on the plane. I was out cold and she couldn't wake me so she used the last parachute."  
  
"She's a doctor, right? Because doctors are known for leaving people to die, aren't they? Don't they give them classes about moving patients? I wouldn't have left you. How hard could you be to drag or roll?" Chloe pauses. " And you were on an island?"  
  
"Yes, and I wish you had been there. I never really trusted Lewis."  
  
"Lex, you're being a little heavy-handed about proving that you trust me. And who is Lewis? You mentioned him before?"  
  
"He was a hallucination. His trying to kill me made me distrust hallucinations. But…"  
  
"…you trust me."  
  
"I'm still trying too hard, right?"  
  
"You're asking me? 'Clark, let me find out all the pertinent and less the pertinent information about someone and yes, I know, you'll never say thank you or tell me the truth about anything'."  
  
The leopard shakes its head and roars. Lex jerks the leash tight and the cat falls to heel.  
  
"Maybe that's why you're here. I mean my anima in Chloe form. She tries so hard and ends up being forgotten."  
  
Chloe does not respond and the unlikely threesome turn up the driveway of the castle. The leopard yanks at the leash and Lex pulls its front feet off the ground. It rotates around on its front legs pawing at the air. It finally surrenders and Lex allows it to resume walking.  
  
Chloe hangs back and warns, "I think it's starting to come out of it. Is there any place we can stash it?"  
  
"I'll just unleash it when we get in the house. We'll probably never see it again."   
  
"Maybe it would be happier outside?"  
  
Lex drags the uncooperative leopard to the front entrance of the castle. "I think it's a little cold outside for the leopard."  
  
"But if it is only a hallucination then what does it matter?" Chloe half pleads.  
  
"Maybe we're judge on how we treat our hallucinations. Would you like me to lock you outside with the leopard?"  
  
Chloe shakes her head 'no' and follows man and cat into the house.  
  
tbc 


	7. VII

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
by Linda Seaton  
  
Chloe ducks around Lex as he shuts the door and leads the cat into the entry hall of the house. He kneels and loosens the belt.  
  
"Maybe you shouldn't do that, Lex?" Chloe asks as she grabs an urn from a side table near the door.  
  
Lex tugs the belt free. The leopard gives him a questioning look before padding off deeper into the house.   
  
Chloe exhales and puts the urn down. Unsure of what to do she wait at the door.  
  
Lex merely stares at her for a few long, uncomfortable moments. He finally asks, "Would you like to have sex now or later?"  
  
A hundred different responses rattle through Chloe's brain but all she can manage is a squeaky, "Later."  
  
Lex nods and ambles off down a hallway.  
  
Chloe reaches back for the door handle just a man screams from one of the downstairs' rooms. With his suit in tatters, the butler slides through the entry room, shoves past the girl and races out of the house.  
  
Chloe looks longingly toward the freedom of the open door but realizes she cannot leave Lex. In his current frame of mind he is perfect leopard food. He'd be psychoanalyzing the leopard's motivation for eating his leg while the leopard was eating his leg.  
  
"Lex?!" Chloe calls and wobbles off in the direction Lex had traveled. Her head throbbing, she struggles to put one foot in front of the other. "Lex!"  
  
She steps through a doorway and finds the man racking balls for a game of pool. She looks for a door to close but all the entrances to the room are open archways. "This place is a castle – a fortress – aren't there any doors to lock?"  
  
Confused, Lex scans the room. He suddenly grins and begins to unbutton his shirt. "Oh."  
  
"No, not that. And I thought you were trying to win my trust?"  
  
"If you have sex with me that means you trust me."  
  
Chloe shakes her head and she can hear the blood pounding. "I see many more marriages in your future."  
  
Lex lines up for the break on the pool table. "Oh, that rule doesn't apply to everyone. I figure my brain put my anima in a good girl suit for a reason."  
  
"I don't even know how to respond to that one." Chloe runs her hand through her hair and comes back with droplets of blood. "But maybe I'd be doing better right now if I had worn a seatbelt."  
  
The leopard roars from what sounds like somewhere upstairs. Lex jumps a little and misses his shot.  
  
"Lex, we should go outside. Get out of the house."  
  
He offers her the pool cue. "Your shot."  
  
Chloe takes the potential weapon and leans against the pool table. She focuses on every word as she speaks, "Lex, I'm real. The real Chloe. That cat is real. Your father set up his own menagerie on the estate and I ended up with a leopard in my car. Do you understand?"  
  
He blinks at her. "You're solids."  
  
Chloe turns to the pool table. "Lex, is there any reason you can think of why your father would keep wild cats on the estate?"  
  
"Of course. His hair."  
  
"Hair?"   
  
"Secretions from wild cats' anal glands are responsible for the glossy sheen of my father's mane. Are you going to take your shot?"  
  
Chloe takes a wild shot and the pool balls scatter. She turns and Lex is practically on top of her. He leans in and kisses her on the lips. Her eyes start to close but then she realizes this is the worst kiss she has ever suffered through in her life. Given, she can count the number of people who have kissed her on one hand and there might be worse kissers out there but she at this moment she doubts it.  
  
She starts to push him away and then over his shoulder spots the leopard in the doorway. She carefully pulls back. "Lex, the leopard is here. The leopard is real. Look."  
  
He glances back at the leopard as it slinks into the room and disappears into the shadow of the room. "It's real?" Unsure, he turns and tries to find the cat.  
  
The scraping sound of talons on stone seems to come from every corner of the room. There is a flash of fur as the leopard launches itself over a sofa.  
  
Chloe grabs a pool ball from the table and throws it with a wobbly arm. The projectile connects with the cat's chest knocking it off balance. The cat roars and drops low to the ground. Chloe throws again and misses.  
  
Lex grabs the eight ball from the table and hurls it at the cat. The ball cracks against the leopard's head. The cat keels over in a panting heap.  
  
The battered Chloe actually looks impressed. "To bad there's no career path in what you just did. You're really good at throwing pool balls."  
  
Happy with the praise, Lex smiles but he seems a little unsure of what is actually going on with both the cat and the girl. He straightens and reaches for Chloe. "Where were we?"  
  
"Please, let's not. It was a little too actorly for me." She motions toward the cat. "Can we call the police? Or at least animal control?"  
  
"Actorly? That's not even a word." He pauses and looks down at Chloe. "No one's ever complained before."  
  
"You're very rich and slightly famous." Chloe frowns. The word 'slightly' sounded slurred to her own ears. "Can we call someone? Please?"  
  
"Actorly?"  
  
"Mannered? That's an actual word, right?"  
  
"Mannered?"  
  
"Workmanlike? Affected? I'm running out of adjectives."  
  
He smirks at her. "And what do you know?"  
  
"That I have a concussion and I'd like to call the police."  
  
He turns in a half-circle then strides over to her. Hesitating as the momentum dies away, he lifts her chin and kisses her again.  
  
She lifts a hand to push him away but it merely comes to rest on his chest. The kiss is very different this time. The attempt to prove kissing proficiency disappears into something exploratory and a little awkward. She wants to laugh because its the only way to make sense of how ridiculously happy she feels. She suddenly realizes that he is the one laughing.  
  
Chloe can hear the sound of his heart or maybe her heart or, hell, maybe the cat's heart beating in her ears. She feels his thumb skimming along the line of her pulse down her throat and the she can barely breathe.  
  
Chloe collapses to the floor.  
  
Confused, Lex looks from girl to leopard. "I didn't think they'd both end up dead."  
  
He steps around Chloe and retrieves the three pool balls from the floor. He places them on the table and reaches for a cue as the police burst into the room.  
  
tbc 


	8. VIII

Bringing Up Bonjo  
  
by Linda Seton  
  
Into the very peaceful place that the semi-conscious Chloe occupies there comes an incessant beep-beep-beep. Without opening her eyes, Chloe knows she is in the hospital. There is something almost soothing about the sounds of the nurses' rubber soled shoes in the hallway and the smell of disinfectant.  
  
Chloe laughs softly.  
  
"If I were you I would have woke up screaming." Lex half-whispers.  
  
Chloe opens her eyes and lifts her head. Lex is sitting in a plastic chair in a dark corner of the room.  
  
"One of the nurses called your father in Metropolis. He's on his way. The nurse told him about your car accident; she didn't tell him about the various predators involved."  
  
Chloe sits up a little and asks, "Are you all right?"  
  
He rises and approaches the bed. "That's actually my question to ask."  
  
"I'm fine. My head and shoulder ache a little but it's not too bad. And you?"  
  
Obviously uncomfortable he looks to the door and then back to Chloe as he chooses words. "I told you that I was on an island – alone for several months. I came home with the end stages of malaria, rickets and a severe vitamin deficiency. The drugs I was taking to correct all that proved a little too potent." He holds up his hand revealing a hospital wrist bracelet. "I'm under observation. I only really came out of the haze when the police arrested me at the castle."  
  
"You were arrested?"  
  
"The butler called the police after the leopard ate his shoe. The police arrested me for a variety of reasons – and you sprawled in a bloody heap on the floor was the primary one."  
  
"I figured it'd be the leopard. At least that's something different."  
  
Lex smiles and seems like he is about to sit down on the corner of the bed but stops himself. "Chloe, I don't know where to begin my apology."  
  
"It's all right. You weren't yourself. And as long as the leopard is still alive none of the parties involved really got hurt."  
  
"Bonjo, her name is Bonjo by the way, is on her way to the Metropolis Zoo." Lex methodically turns the bracelet on his wrist. "I'd feel better if you actually let me apologize."  
  
The door opens and a grey-haired nurse steps into the room. A no-nonsense type she clears her throat for emphasis, "Mr. Luthor, we agreed to let you wear your own clothes but you have to return to your own room."  
  
Lex turns to face the woman whose foot is now tapping an angry rhythm on the floor. Resigned, he agrees, "Let me say goodnight to Miss Sullivan and I'll be right with you."  
  
The woman nods and closes the door. Chloe watches the older woman staring at Lex through the glass panel of the door.  
  
"I don't think I'll gain anything but leg restraints by arguing with her. I'll come back tomorrow and finish my apology." Lex inches toward the door in his attempt to complicate the nurse's job.  
  
Lex Luthor versus the RN strikes Chloe as funny and she has to fight down the laughter. "Lex, you're forgiven. I don't think I could take a more formal apology. Let's call it even. I mean you only tried to kill me twice and seduce me two or three times."  
  
Lex pauses with his hand on the door. Without turning he offers, "If I really tried to seduce you Chloe you'd have a more precise count."  
  
The door closes silently behind him.  
  
Chloe's eyes widen slightly and then she laughs. Her hand goes to her head from the sudden jostling. "Ouch."  
  
In the hallway, Lex smiles at no one in particular. He extends his arm to the waiting nurse. "I'm all yours."  
  
Muttering a little about the quality of people the hospital attracts, the woman leads him down the hallway.  
  
The End 


End file.
